Sun, Jan 29 2012 - Tray Mountain Explorer - Chimney Mountain and Brier Creek Bald (View Original Event Details) Trip Leader(s): Tony C, Danny Participants: Danny, Tony C, papi, Jim, Elizabeth, Duane B

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Write Up:
This one turned out to be well worth the wait after multiple reschedulings due to bad weather.  We ended up with a near perfect January day for a long hike in the N Ga mountains...temp was in the 30s starting out but warmed to the 40s and just blue sky and sunshine with incredibly clear visibility.

We started out on the AT and first stop was Brier Creek Bald, a 4000+ mtn next to Tray.  We expected a bushwhack up but there was actually a trail most of the way...a nice surprise and allowed to conserve some of our energy for later..we would need it.

We then headed up Tray mtn and over to the "secret" overlook (that quite a few people apparently know about now).  After a lunch break here, we took a deep breath and headed into the rhododendron thicket...our goal was Chimney Mtn just about 2 miles away as the crow flies but felt like no way we would get there with the slow going...fighting through the trees, ducking, crawling, etc.  It was manageable, but very slow and difficult.

We made it to a very steep drop and co-leader Tony was thinking it was hopeless and we should turn back. Danny wanted to try for another 30 minutes and at the bottom of that climb it became easier..then uphill a little with another long drop.  This time Danny wanted to turn back but Tony said another 30 minutes and the group forged ahead.

It was about 1300' of fairly steep downhill bushwhacking but at least the vegetation had opened up a bit and progress was being made.  After about 45 min, we found a faint trail for awhile and felt like we were on a super highway after all that slow going.

But at this point Danny and Tony had summit fever and the rest of the group did too.  We made it to the gap right before the climb up Chimney and realized we were going to make it to our goal.  And actually there was a proper trail going up from this point for the last 1/2 mile or so.  It was a steep climb in parts but felt great.

At the top of Chimney we enjoyed the sense of accomplishment and checked out the views to the east and southeast.  We tried to find the rocky area that we could see from Tray mtn and various points in between, but we could never locate it and didn't want to spend too much time in the search.  So that's an extra reason to return in the future.

In the interest of time and not wanting to get stuck in the dark bushwhacking back up, we decided to try to work our way down to Chimney Mtn Road and walk back up to Tray Gap from there.  We headed down the trail and then at the low point near the gap we left it for some of the steepest hiking of the day, down about 400' until we finally reached the road.

From here it was a long walk up..gaining about 1600' again to Tray Gap.  But was a gradual climb and not especially difficult.  We encountered a lot of tornado damage on the way (see pics) 

From Tray Gap, it was just about 1.8 miles back to the cars and we finished up just about sunset.  It turned out to be about a 9 1/2 hour hike. 16.2 miles and 4500' of total ascent.  Hopefully can do this one again next winter.

-Tony C

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